Consider How the Bible Teaches Us to Treat One Another The Bible gives us many “one another” commands that instruct us how to treat one another. Things to Do Love one another (John 13:34, John 13:35, Romans 13:8, 1 Peter 1:22, 1 John 3:11, 1 John 3:23, 1 John 4:7, 1 John 4:11, 1 John […]
Be Doers of the Word and Not Hearers Only I write a lot about the importance of reading Scripture and studying God’s Word. But reading and studying the Bible is not enough. We must apply what the Bible teaches to our daily lives for it to matter, for it to change us and impact the […]
God Doesn’t Want Us to Study Him; He Wants Us to Know Him When people first learn that I have a PhD and where I did my postgrad work, they assume I’m into theology. Imagine their disappointment to find out I don’t care about the concept or want to pursue a right theology, that I […]
Leviticus Warns Against Everything Unclean, but Jesus Has a Different Response I’ve never met anyone who likes the book of Leviticus, and many admit to skimming it when it comes up in their Bible reading plan, yet a thoughtful read of this often-tedious book reveals startling insights. Today’s section talks about the unclean: unclean people, […]
Consider the Fruit You Bear as a Follower of Jesus Paul tells the church in Galatia that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). When we follow Jesus and the Holy Spirit resides in us, this should result in changed behavior, a better behavior […]
The Church of Jesus Needs to Focus on Three Things and Master Them All In our normal usage, church is a building, a place we go to—often on Sunday mornings. I’ll be there later today. Other definitions for church include a religious service, organized religion, and professional clergy. Yet a more correct understanding is that […]
The Simplicity of Faith In Peter’s darkest moment, he denies that he even knows who Jesus is. I don’t criticize Peter for this, however. Despite a desire to respond differently, I suspect that if facing death, I could easily do the same thing. Later, after returning to life, Jesus restores Peter to right relationship with […]
Prosperity Is Not a Bad Word, and We Must Start Embracing It as Good A popular pastime today is to decry prosperity as an evil that plagues the world. These folks think that all people who prosper are greedy and selfish—though some are. They advocate taking from those who have and give to those who […]
Be Careful What You Say Many people today—too many—feel they have a right to say whatever they want to say, whenever they want to say it. What they forget is that this privilege also comes with a responsibility to not say some things, to at times keep quiet. Just because we can say something, doesn’t […]
Many People Like an Easy Jesus, But Not Everyone Accepts What He Says Jesus normally teaches the masses in parables. Though most don’t really understand what he means, they like his stories because they’re so countercultural. Inaddition, he sometimes gives them food and heals them. He’s a cool speaker who does nice things for them. […]